Ursa in Action!

Ursa in action was the take home message from Monday night’s Ursa Community Meeting held at the Silt Fire House. Jeff Powers (Landman) took center stage, keeping the Ursa big guns in reserve at the back of the hall. He promised a brief presentation, and indeed 6 slides later, we were done.

To recap: In 2013, Ursa drilled 50 wells across Silt and Battlement Mesa. In 2014, it was 20. There will be one rig (Capstar) running in 2015, not the two initially planned.

For the first 6 months of 2015, NO wells will be drilled in Silt (though there will be some completions), 37 in Battlement Mesa, and 2 in Rio Blanco. There “may” be 2 more drilled on the Frei pad in the latter half of the year.

Much as a conjurer produces a rabbit from a hat, “You won’t be seeing Ursa in 2015” announced Jeff Powers to a complete lack of applause. We’ll still be breathing the impacts of course, just not seeing them.

Ursa is letting the leases expire from the Cactus Valley Unit eastward — that means all leases east of the Harvey Gap Road and North of I-70. Whilst at pains to explain that Ursa was still making money and that no one was starving, Don Simpson (VP of Business Development) did admit that the price of gas was painful. Ursa has sold 75% of this year’s gas on “hedges” and, unlike WPX, they do not have to answer to shareholders — or lay anyone off. Yet.

Ursa continues its commitment to the community although has had to cut back on sponsoring community events because someone complained. I didn’t follow up on this I’m afraid, but perhaps other O&G companies were jealous? Or some citizens didn’t want to be beholden? It remains an unsolved mystery. Golf tournaments were exempted from this dictate. No mystery there, golfers vote!